Rav Moshe Cordovero

Early years

Rav Moshe Cordovero zt"l, known as the Ramak after the initials of his name, was born in 1522, the son of Rav Yaakov Cordovero. His family name points to roots in Cordova, and his family is said to have fled Spain in the expulsion of 1492. He lived in Tzfas, the city that was soon to become famous as a center of Kabbalah.

Even as a young man he had a reputation as an extraordinary genius. Besides his command of Kabbalah, he was a Talmudic scholar and philosopher of the highest rank, widely respected in those fields. In 1538 he was one of four who received special semicha (ordination) from Rav Yaakov Beirav, together with Rav Yosef Karo, who was his teacher in halacha, Rav Moshe of Trani and Rav Yosef Sagis. The other three were much older and better known than the young prodigy.

Torah and leadership

In 1542, at the age of twenty, the Ramak heard a heavenly voice urging him to study Kabbalah with his brother-in-law, Rav Shlomo Alkabetz, composer of Lecha Dodi. In this way he was initiated into the mysteries of the Zohar of Rav Shimon bar Yochai, and he mastered the text completely. Still, he was not satisfied, because the Zohar's teachings are often hard to follow and lack an apparent structure. To clarify them for himself he began to write two works, Ohr Yakar, a commentary on the Zohar, and Pardes Rimonim, which he completed in 1548.

Around 1550 the Ramak founded a Kabbalah academy in Tzfas and led it for some twenty years, until his passing. It is told that Eliyahu HaNavi revealed himself to him. His talmidim included many of the luminaries of Tzfas, among them Rav Eliyahu di Vidas, author of Reishis Chochmah, and Rav Chaim Vital, who later became the recorder and disseminator of the teachings of the holy Ari, Rav Yitzchak Luria.

The circle followed the methods described in the Zohar and took on various acts of penance in order to hasten the Redemption. They spent long hours meditating and davening in the fields, and they visited the nearby ancient kevarim of the sages of the Mishnah. When the Ari arrived in Tzfas he joined this group and behaved with great modesty, hoping to conceal his greatness. Only the Ramak, with his pure vision, recognized who he was. The Ramak was regarded as the head of the Tzfas Kabbalists until his passing, shortly after the arrival of Rav Yitzchak Luria.

Teachings and seforim

Pardes Rimonim (Orchard of Pomegranates) secured the Ramak's lasting fame. In it he systematized all the Kabbalistic thought that had been revealed up to his time. It was especially important because he reconciled many of the earlier schools with the teachings of the Zohar, showing the essential unity and consistent philosophical basis of Kabbalah.

Tomer Devorah (The Palm Tree of Devorah) uses the Kabbalistic concept of the sefiros (Divine attributes), and the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, to build a system of mussar and ethics. Ohr Ne'erav defends the importance of studying Kabbalah and introduces its methods. Eilimah Rabbasi is a treatise on Kabbalistic questions.

His other seforim include Ohr Yakar, his large commentary on the Zohar, Ohr LaYesharim, Zivchei Shelamim on the tefillos of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Shiur Komah, Tefillah LeMoshe, a commentary on the siddur, and Sefer HaGeirushin, which is connected with the expulsion from Spain and is said to have been revealed to him through a maggid (heavenly teacher).

Later years and passing

Before his passing in 1570, the Ramak told his talmidim that he would soon leave the world, and that someone would take his place. Even if many of that person's statements seemed to contradict his own, they should not oppose him or argue with him, for they came from the same source as his own and were absolutely true. His soul, he said, was a spark of Rav Shimon bar Yochai, and whoever opposed him opposed the Shechina.

The talmidim asked for his name. The Ramak said he could not tell them, because at that point the man did not want his identity known. He could say only this: whoever would see the cloud that would go before his coffin at the levaya would be his successor.

A few weeks later, on 23 Tammuz 5330 (1570), Rav Moshe Cordovero passed away. The entire community mourned, and all of the Jews of Tzfas attended the levaya. Many eulogies were given, among them one by the Ari, who described the Ramak as completely free of sin.

Legacy

That very day the fame of the Ari began to spread, and many great scholars began to gather around him. Just as the Ramak had foretold, the Ari's teachings seemed at first to contradict those of his predecessor, but in time all came to see that the two really agreed.